The Week in Preview 5.19.08

By Stu

Monday May 19th – Sunday May 25th

Introduction:

Welcome to the second edition of A Week in Preview. This is your guide to wrestling this week from the biggest promotions in the United States, where I look forward to the next week in the unique world of professional wrestling. I look at all the “must-see” shows and moments that are confirmed for the following week, as well as predicting some things that may transpire.

A Week in Review

First thing’s first, Judgment Day was this week and WWE have gone five-for-five in terms of delivering good pay-per-views. While not to the standards of the first three this year, and not even as good as Backlash, I thought Judgment Day as a whole was really enjoyable and well worth my money. I wasn’t expecting any blow away matches, as One Night Stand is in two weeks and Night of Champions in four weeks afterwards, so I was pleasantly surprised to see six solid matches, two of which were touching on great territory and the others being fine, with only one really bad match. I was surprised to see Batista not getting involved, and adding more elements of surprise. Jeff Hardy returned to PPV, and I feel rather impartial about his situation. Yes, he screwed up, but he is a solid worker and is crazy over – but what’s to stop him doing it again? We’ll see how it goes. Cena opened his first pay-per-view since the Great American Bash of 2004, and the match had mediocre heat compared to most Cena matches, which sucked, but on the other hand at least he got mostly positive reactions. Judgment Day was better than Sacrifice, flowed nicely, solid matches, and overall I enjoyed it. But it still doesn’t come close to LockDown, No Way Out, the ROH PPV’s and Wrestlemania, unfortunately, but I am optimistic about One Night Stand.

So, Raw was there, and it was fine in parts and not in the others. I have to say that they’ve blown a few things, like the breakup of Cade and Murdoch, as it’s should have been done the week after Vengeance, not the go-home show for Judgment Day. Not that it’d make me care any more, but I just think that’s poor booking by WWE. On the other hand, Jeff Hardy returned this week, to an awesome pop, and went through Umaga (who I hate to see lose like that, but at least he is going to SmackDown! hopefully). The HBK/Y2J storyline is interesting because either person could properly turn anytime soon, and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. However there’s only one issue on Raw that people truly care about: Randy Orton’s new music. That sucks, doesn’t it? Anyway, the match he had with Cena was really fun to watch, and did more to hype the event than pretty much anything else. All in all, not a lot of wrestling, but at least some good angle advancement.

Well, anybody that read Larry’s 4R’s this week will know I was a big fan of ECW this week. It was one of the more entertaining episodes and it did more to make me buy the pay-per-view than any other show this week. While the booking decisions were questionable, I just couldn’t argue with two good matches and two squashed Colin Delaney’s. No crap, just a good solid enjoyable hour of wrestling. Hats off to Morrison, who’s gotten good matches out of Batista and Kane, which makes me really enthusiastic at the fact that he could be a star after all, but makes me pessimistic that they might blow it again. I hate that CM Punk jobbed, but Miz is really coming out now as a fine wrestler and this week showed that.

SmackDown! this week was more of a same as usual sort of deal. There was some good solid matches (SmackDown!, I feel, has always been fairly reliable at delivering good matches), but no angle advancement. I feel like I’ve seen everything in the Vickie/Undertaker/Edge storyline already, as if its “once you’ve seen one part of it, you’ve seen it all”. Kind of like a Matt Hardy match, really. Of course, on SmackDown! the Edge/Taker story is the only one with any real consistency, and they need to capitalize on Matt Hardy as US Champion, and get him some programs ready for Vengeance. There is also the Batista storyline, which has a lot of continuity, and I’m enjoying the unpredictability. I thought WWE made a stupid decision by having Batista say he was appearing at Judgment Day, as I thought that gave it away, but I was happy to be wrong. Guess this is another reason why I shouldn’t jump to conclusions. That’s actually stellar booking by WWE.

TNA iMPACT’s main focus this week was to begin the build to Slammiversary. Firstly, I’m glad they’re having Petey Williams vs. Kaz – too often is the X Division title defended in clustered spot fests, so given some time I’d like to see where this one is going. As I predicted, they emphasized a lot more on Booker T’s heel turn, since it didn’t get a great deal of attention at Sacrifice, so that’s good booking. They’re also building up to LAX vs. Team 3D, which I can’t complain about, as it’s already gotten the build of a blood feud. One of the highlights this week had to be Awesome Kong vs. Gail Kim, which was awesome aside from a screwy finish, but boy do these women have chemistry. Overall, I have to say I quite enjoyed TNA, and I’m a person who is usually critical of them. There were some dodgy decisions, and the show wasn’t perfect, but it was fine for what it was.

So overall, a fun, fun week of wrestling it has been, so let’s hope for some more this week!

Judgment Day’s STARZ!:

John Cena vs. JBL **1/4
John Morrison & The Miz vs. Kane & CM Punk **1/4
Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho **** Match of the Night
Mickie James vs. Melina vs. Beth Phoenix **3/4
Edge vs. Undertaker ***1/2
Jeff Hardy vs. MVP *1/2
Triple H vs. Randy Orton ***

Out of the matches predicted in my roundtable a couple of days ago, I got all my results right except the Tag Team Title match. This makes me a happy boy, especially since I did want to be wrong with Morrison & Miz. So, that gives me 5 out of 6 right for this PPV, which makes me 83% right (or WWE being predictable, your call).

Overall:

Random Facts and Tidbits:

* Undertaker’s gogoplata has gone 116 days without a proper name, making it one of the longest running finishers without one.
* The Undertaker and JBL have main evented more Judgment Day events than any other wrestlers in nine years, with each one headlining it three times.
* In the month of May, the WCW World Championship has changed hands seven times, with six of those times being in the year 2000.
*The ROH World Tag Team titles being vacated is the fourth time a title in ROH has been declared vacant, with three of these being the tag titles and one being the ROH Pure Title.
*As of the 19th May, Kane has held the ECW Title 50 times longer than he held the WWF Championship.
*It is also the longest he has ever held a single’s title in WWE.
*The 19th of May is also 18 years to the day since Sting was saved from an attack by the Four Horsemen by RoboCop (!!!!!!) at NWA Capital Combat.
*This week marks the 2nd anniversary of the release of See No Evil. It got 17% rating on Metacritic, and 8% on Rotten Tomatoes.
*This week also marks the sixth anniversary that Kurt Angle was shaved bald. Edge tried to start a “you’re bald” chant. Needless to say, it did not catch on.
*The last time the Intercontinental Title changed hands on Pay-Per-View was at Vengeance 2006. Since then the title has hands changed eight times.
*The only title to change hands this week (19th May to 25th May) in 2007 in TNA, ROH and WWE was Chris Benoit losing the United States Title to MVP in a two out of three falls match.

RoboCop and Sting: Redefining Awesome

Celebrating Life

Sunday May 18th 2008 marked the sixth year anniversary of the death of Davey Boy Smith, better known as the British Bulldog. Davey Boy began his career, like most of the Hart family, being trained by Stu Hart, and then teaming with the Dynamite Kid to form the British Bulldogs. Together, they formed one of the most highly acclaimed tag teams in the history of wrestling, with Kid being the technician, while Smith utilized a more power-based approach. They dominated much of the WWF and Japan, before eventually splitting up, with Smith pursuing a single’s career. Smith was incredibly popular with the fans, especially during feuds with Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels, but the highlight of Smith’s career came at SummerSlam 1992, in front of the second largest audience either of them had ever fought in, as Davey Boy Smith defeated the legendary Bret Hart, in 25 minutes, in an unbelievable match. It’s not only the best match of Bulldog’s career, but one of the finest bouts in the history of professional wrestling. It’s probably my fondest memory of Davey Boy Smith’s career, and he deserves just a little mention here for all he did for wrestling – remembering his career for the positives more so than the negatives. Rest in Peace, Davey Boy Smith:

As if by some cruel coincidence, this week also marks the anniversary of the death of fellow Hart family member, Owen Hart, who died on May 23rd of 1999. Owen Hart’s time in the WWF was filled with title reigns, yet he was believed to be underutilized, especially following his feud with his brother in 1994. He is widely considered to be one of the best wrestlers never to have won a major world title, and that is hard to argue, especially considering that some people compare his skills to Bret Hart’s. Also Stu Hart trained, Owen made the biggest impact of his career at Wrestlemania X against his brother Bret, where he wrestled in the best match of his career, and arguably the best match of Bret’s career. His career coming to an abrupt end was one of the great injustices, for such a great career to end on such a bad note. Rest in Peace, Owen James Hart:

Comments:

Good column. Confused by this though:

**********

*The World Title being vacated is the fourth time in the six years of its
inception that it has been vacant/stripped.
*It is also the third time in as many years that this has happened.

**********

Might be the only one who doesn’t understand this. Clarification?

Thanks for asking, but as the comment afterwards said, it means that the title has been vacated four times in six years, and that three of those times happened in the last three years.

Stuart:
You did a great job with this article. i very much enjoyed reading it. Keep up
the good work!

Thank you, that means a lot to me and even something as small as that makes it all worthwhile. Thanks for the comments. More plz!

A Week in Preview:

Raw

With just two weeks of build until One Night Stand, I think its safe to say there’s not a great deal of time left to build up a new rivalry for Triple H’s WWE Title. Look for Randy Orton to get the best of HHH this week, with the possible addition of another wrestler (perhaps Cena, JBL or to a stretch, Chris Jericho) to make it a multi-man match at One Night Stand. In all likeliness, Randy Orton will probably bust HHH open this week, taking it into blood feud territory in preparation for the final blow off at ONS IV.

On the subject of Cena and JBL, look for their rivalry to continue, as nothing was resolved at Judgment Day, despite the face winning cleanly. Unfortunately, this may lead to a rematch on a pay-per-view, which looks to be on the verge of becoming mostly rematches from Judgment Day or Backlash. Ideally, this feud should be molded into another feud, to freshen things up, although I can’t see that happening. In all probability, this feud will just end up extending with the “one week I beat you up” formula, leading to another gimmick match at ONS. Hopefully, though, it can be to the standards of their brilliant I Quit match of Judgment Day 2005.

As I’ve said several times, the build to the HBK/Y2J/Batista storyline has been absolutely tremendous. I’m really hoping WWE has the gumption to follow it on until SummerSlam, possibly with Batista turning on HBK to put him “out of action” over the months leading up to Night of Champions, so the champions can have their build, since HBK probably won’t be on that card. Y2J probably will be looking for an Intercontinental feud if he doesn’t pursue HBK anymore, although I can still see Y2J turning also. Call me crazy, but I could actually see a triple threat for One Night Stand, booked by William Regal to let them “blow off some steam”, even without a title on the line.

The women’s title still looks promising these past couple of weeks, and Judgment Day continues my hope. Clearly they’re looking for a good program between Melina and Beth, without signaling out Mickie James. Look for this feud to continue, with the possibility of a title change always on the horizon – although let’s just pray it doesn’t lead to a pudding match at One Night Stand …

Naturally, it would make sense for King Regal to continue his dominance, and his feud with Kennedy. Let’s see how this one goes, and whether they can get a good solid match at One Night Stand. Kennedy could benefit a lot from a long program with Regal, and they’re both more over than they have been ever now. Also look for Jeff Hardy to continue his momentum this week, possibly getting into a feud with Chris Jericho for the intercontinental title, which I’d have no problems with as they show wonderful chemistry and could do a lot – it would just be questionable to give Hardy the title straight away.

I doubt WWE will give storylines such as the breakup of Cade and Murdoch much attention. The impact of a breakup between wrestlers is usually more effective when the two wrestlers are over, whereas Murdoch and Cade are not. And the old cliché is that one goes onto great things while the other is left behind? Can you imagine Trevor Murdoch: WWE Champion? Still, stranger things have happened. And nothing against Murdoch, I love his work most of the time.

ECW

The big angle in the land of Extreme is the ongoing feud between Morrison & Miz against Kane & CM Punk. Naturally, I’m guessing that this will continue onwards, despite the heels picking up a clean victory, so I believe that this is leading to a Morrison vs. Kane match for One Night Stand. Kane will need a feud coming out of One Night Stand, and other than CM Punk I can’t think of any, unless Morrison or Miz does a double match at Night of Champions. Therefore, look for more tension to be built between Punk and Kane, leading up to One Night Stand, where I see Punk cashing in his trusty briefcase. But for now, I’m guessing we’re heading towards Morrison/Kane at ONS, which should be a damn fine match if both people give it their all. The only question is, what will The Miz be doing?

Meanwhile, also on ECW this week is the continuation of the Shelton Benjamin and Kofi Kingston rivalry. Personally, I can’t make up my mind whether I like Kofi or not until I see him in a long match where he can hit more offensive moves. Three minute matches are fine to start with, but ideally I’d like to see him in a fifteen minute match this week with Benjamin, with a good showing from both men. Three minute matches also don’t get people over.

Colin Delaney’s story continued last week, being beaten twice by Armando Estrada, who is ripped as fuck, so look for him to be punished again. On the other hand, perhaps this will be the week that Colin stands up for himself. Heck, we may even get a match made for ONS … maybe. Don’t get your hopes up. As far as the storyline goes, it’s still got my interest, and that’s the important thing right now.

SmackDown!

This week, look for more continuation of the Undertaker/Edge saga. While the storyline has been relatively mediocre (although it does build good heat for the Undertaker’s gogoplata), the matches have been top notch, but they seem to be decreasing in quality as they go along. I’m thinking this is coming to a head this month, so look for a big gimmick match (hopefully a ladder match) for One Night Stand. They can’t have another single’s match, that’s for sure.

Furthermore, the divas storyline, while not getting a lot of attention, is certainly making me a fan of Natalya Neidhart. I really hope she keeps improving right now, because she’s doing really well, and I hope to see her moved over to Raw after she’s learnt everything she needs from better wrestlers on SmackDown! like Victoria. But look for this one to continue also, and don’t be surprised for them to get a filler match for One Night Stand – with all the gimmicks there it just makes sense.

I’m imagining that a US Title feud will be made this week, possibly with Shelton Benjamin, or MVP again, since they renewed their rivalry at Judgment Day slightly, and it just makes sense since the Backlash match doesn’t really seem like a fitting end to a feud that was eight months long. With two weeks until One Night Stand, don’t be surprised to see MVP/Hardy added to the card.

I’m all for continuity, but I am intrigued as to what they’re doing with Big Show and Mark Henry. Nobody’s going to give Henry a chicken’s chance in Thailand of winning against Show, who should be getting involved in the World Title. Thankfully, Big Show and Finlay both expressed how they want to be competing for the world title, so hopefully they can be added, just to freshen things up a bit. On the other hand, it seems more and more obvious to me that SmackDown! need some Raw guys like Umaga to come over, because they have no main eventers outside Batista, Undertaker, Edge and Big Show.

Don’t be surprised to see HBK on Friday night either. He’s not going to be happy with the threat made and will probably have words for Batista, possibly even striking Batista before the animal has a chance to hurt him. I’m all for this feud, I really am, as nobody can bring the best out of people like HBK, and Batista seems motivated right now, which is always a good sign. The beauty of the HBK feuds this year is that they’ve all flowed one into the other perfectly: from Kennedy, into Flair, into Batista, into Jericho, so smoothly, and that’s really helping the feuds out a lot.

TNA iMPACT

This week, Samoa Joe will announce the four people for him to compete in the King of the Mountain match. Now if I was Samoa Joe, I’d pick Black Reign, Lance Hoyt, Jimmy Rave and BG James, but that’s just me. In all seriousness, I think Joe’s left to pick the stars, and I have not read any spoilers – any correct picks are completely coincidental. I think he’ll pick AJ Styles, since his match with Kurt Angle seems to be off (although a fresh Angle would make for an awesome match), Curry Man (oh yeah, I’d buy this), Christian and Booker T (to kick his ass). Then the guys making it through could be Roode, Booker, Christian, AJ with Joe there to win. Look for some big angle advancement here; building up the fact that nobody has ever retained the title in a King of the Mountain match. Whatever happens, look for lots of advancement on this match’s story, particularly on Booker T’s part.

The tag titles match will likely be featured, with LAX looking for revenge. This should move into blood feud territory, which would be good since all four people are great brawlers. Regardless of what people think of Team 3D, I’d still call them one of the best teams in the world, based entirely of experience and ability to still put on solid matches.

I personally can’t wait to see how the Knockouts’ story goes this week. Of all the feuds in all of wrestling, it’s probably the second feud I’m most looking forward to (seconded only by HBK/Y2J/Batista). Awesome Kong and Kahn are on a roll as of late, and it’s difficult to see who could stop her right now. Ideally, look for an underdog baby face to step up for a few weeks leading up to Slammiversary, only to be shot down. However, the bit I’m most looking forward to is the Roxxi vs. Beautiful People feud, as I feel it still has a lot of potential, even if people did chant “Fire Russo”. It’s gotten harsh criticism, and while not perfect, they’ve followed up really well, with Roxxi looking like a really big deal and getting great sympathy heat.

Also, look for some more advancement on the Lethal/Dutt storyline. I love how they’re taking this really slowly, as Dutt could have turned months ago. Now, a wedding at Slammiversary is a questionable decision, but at least we’re likely to get our heel turn by Dutt then, and what better way to begin a feud then to ruin somebody’s marriage?

Apparently Karen Angle has been challenged to come to TNA this week by Kurt Angle, not that you’d know thanks to a huge cock up by Spike, but I’d love to see Angle walk away into the sunset, just for a few months with Karen in just a feel good moment, although don’t be surprised to see some whacky over the top storylines either.

Hopefully this week we get a bit more advancement of the Kaz and Petey Williams. I like the idea of Kaz saying how this year will be his year, but Petey should put him down as nothing more than a disappointment, and build a storyline from that. Also this week, look for more vignettes involving Abyss, possibly announcing a return date.

Overall:

Look for another exciting week of wrestling, as TNA builds to Slammiversary, slowly announcing their card, while WWE will look to jump straight in and announce at least four matches for One Night Stand. This week should be a must watch for fans of both these shows, but particularly WWE, as we will see how the ONS card will be shaping up. Expect more actual wrestling than we got last week, with a healthy balance between promos and matches.

The One to Watch This Week:

John Morrison made a star of himself this week, beating Kane on ECW, and then following it up with a clean victory over Kane and CM Punk at Judgment Day. Not only this, but two weeks ago, he put up a brilliant fight against Batista, so look for his momentum to continue. Whether it be a tag title match, or an ECW Title match with Kane, it seems likely that Morrison will be a big player in ECW these next few weeks.

Competition Time
Just for shits and giggles:

Firstly, loose ends time:
Well done to all who entered, I’m glad my little goose chase got a good response, and its just a little touch to get your wrestling minds working. I don’t mind if you do have to research it, because there’s no harm in that, so don’t feel guilty. But if you didn’t research it, wow, I’m impressed.

The results from last week:

1. Name all the people who have held both the ECW World Title (both original and modern day version) and the WWE Title (all versions) at various stages in their career. [Hint: There’s four]
100% of people got this right, which I’m impressed at. The answers were Rob Van Dam, Big Show, Vince McMahon and Kane, and as a Mr. Russel said is “kind of sad when you think about it”.

2. Name this match: It took place on May 16th 1999. The match was fought outside of WWE, by two former tag team champions (but not with each other). The match ended via a submission, to a chokehold. It main evented a pay-per-view and took place in the home state of the winner of the match.
Indeed, a lot of people got this one. It may have been given away by the submission part, but 100% of people got the answer as Taz vs. Bubba Ray Dudley at ECW Hardcore Heaven.

3. True or False: The ECW Title, ROH World Title and TNA World Title have never changed hands in the month of May?
In retrospect, this is quite the deceiving question and its just how you look at it. It probably wasn’t wise of me to make it such an ambiguous question. Basically, the TNA World Title was vacated in May of 2007, so that, in reality, means it changed hands. There’s no doubt about the other two, so it’s really what you want. Really, you could make a point for either way, but if you asked me, I’d say False was the answer, since it was vacated and went to Angle straight after.

4. The WWF/E Intercontinental Title has been won by three “Canadian Chris'” in May. Name these three superstars [Hint: Trick Question]
Indeed it was quite the evil question, but most people thought correctly that the answer was Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho and Christian. However, I did make sure to tell everyone it was a trick question, and I will always say if it’s a trick question.

5. On May 17th what did Samoa Joe officially do for the first time in ROH?
He made it a world title by successfully defending the title in England. Well done to all who got that one, as it was the trickiest there.

Big hats off to: Glen Russell and Jeff who both got full marks. Since you guys did so well on my initial week, here’s another five that may require a bit more research.

This week’s questions! :

1. Kane had a match during the famous May 19th storyline, on a show aired May 19th 2006. Who did he face, what was the result, and which two wrestlers beat Kane’s opponent the previous two weeks on the shows aired May 12th and May 5th?

2. Who has held their respective titles longest (by length of all reigns combined) as of the 19th of May: Kurt Angle as TNA World Champion or Triple H as WWF/E Champion (not World Heavyweight)?

3. True or False? Trish Stratus has won the WWF/E Women’s title in: a “tag match”; retained it in a “fulfill your fantasy” match; failed to win it at Judgment Day 2003; lost the title in a hardcore match; and lost the title also in the main event of a Raw show.

4. On May 7th 2005, Samoa Joe won the ROH Pure Championship. What were the results of the other two title matches on that particular show?

5. Here’s a toughie: At what show did Alex Shelley famously try (and succeed) in starting a “Let’s Go Fat Guy” chant? During this time, what stables was Alex Shelley a member of in ROH?

Send all answers to [email protected] or simply leave a comment below. Answers will be revealed in next week’s column. Remember to share any thoughts on the column below!

Enough Cheap Plugs To Make Mick Foley Blush

Jarrod Westerfeld presents the Navigation Log – for all your Japanese wrestling needs here.

Mike Chin explains The Importance Of … The I Quit Match here.

Dave Martell presents the 92nd Triple Threat, featuring himself, Alex Mattis and Zach Brown here.

Julian Bond presents Please Don’t Hate … this week featuring Triple H here.

Scott Slimmergives his Instant Access thoughts on Judgment Day along with J.T., Jeff Small and Chris Lansdell here.

Andy Clark presents the fifth part of his series on the History of the World Heavyweight Championship in the newest edition of The Shimmy here.

Ryan Merholz investigates whether Judgment Day was Worth Your Wealth here.

JP Prag presents issue number 142 of Hidden Highlights here.

Larry Csonka and the staff vote for their Wrestler of the Week here.

Larry Csonka presents Tremendous Tirades, reviewing Judgment Day 2007 here.

J.D. Dunn presents Dark Pegasus Reviews, reviewing Armageddon 2000 here.

Larry Csonka presents Tremendous Tirades, reviewing Shimmer Volume 16 here.

Robert Leighty Jr. presents From the Bowery, reviewing Wrestlemania III here.

Until Next Time,

Stu